Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy 2011!

Front cover for the Christmas 2010 Electronic Soup Podcast. An image from a 1984 Commodore 64 adventure game, 'Merry Christmas from Melbourne House', of Santa outside his workshop at the North Pole, next to a Snowman who has lost its nose, overlaid with the text, 'SpecialEffect Electronic Soup Podcast' and a tin of electric soup.

As OneSwitch winds up shop for the year, here's four pressie links all wrapped up and ready to pop under your virtual Christmas tree. You may open them early if you like...

1. Musical Pressie.
2. Talking Pressie (HQ OneSwitch and HQ SpecialEffect).
3. Retro Pressie.
4. Interactive Pressie.

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

Sunday, 19 December 2010

Bundle of Wrong

Bundle of Wrong - donate once, get the lot and then some.

The Bundle of Wrong is a great concept. Pay what you like, then get the okay to download all of Rob Fearon's games. These include the wonderful "SYNSO: Championship Edition" with one-switch play compatibility.

What would your money buy? Firstly, some hugely fun and massively colourful games, some with a brilliant range of accessibility options. Secondly, you could also treat it as a donation towards his totally free "Fish Fish Bang Bang" demo and "The Ambiomat" one-switch art toy, in the hope that he'll carry on with this type of work. Thirdly, Rob's recovering from Pneumonia, and any donation would surely put a smile on his face.

Rob has made a massive difference to the world of accessible gaming, through the support of RetroRemakes and beyond. Please consider supporting one of the biggest advocates of accessible gaming at Bag Full of Wrong.

Monday, 13 December 2010

iPad

Stock image of an Apple iPad, with a race game playing.

If you're thinking of lashing out on an iPad, here's a couple of useful links to mooch through before you do: Accessible GameBase review and Kate Aherne's iPad posts. If you're looking for a portable machine to play good one-switch games on, this isn't it though.

Sunday, 12 December 2010

Swagger




Ha! I loved The Max Headroom Show. This was the last from the first series, first shown on Channel 4 in 1985. I'd so love to get a chance to watch that original UK series again. Max always makes me smile.

Tuesday, 7 December 2010

Gavin Philips Website

Image of Gavin Philips' 'Combat Chair', a super-cheap to build accessibility switch and a stock photo of a battery interrupter.

I've an enormous amount of respect for the work and knowledge of Gavin Philips in the field of accessibility. You may have heard of him through his work on the amazing AbleGames event run by Assistive Technology Partners. His brand new web-site reveals links to more brilliant resources he's been behind, including...

...a grin-inducing "Combat Chair" using dual Nerf guns (fire foam darts), a D.I.Y. accessibility switch guide that's super cheap to build, an eye controlled wheelchair and more besides. Superb. 

Added to the OneSwitch D.I.Y. index.

Monday, 6 December 2010

Avant-Garde Playground Design

Image of Keita Takahashi's playground furniture design, 'Flower'. Diagram of kids pulling on ropes to bend a very long vertical structure of a flexible tube threaded through large colourful balls, that can be pulled about.

Image of Keita Takahashi's playground furniture design, 'DOG'. Diagram of huge catapults designed to launch items for a dog to chase down once launched.

Image of Keita Takahashi's playground furniture design, 'Trampolines'. Diagram of an oval route of sunken small round trampolines.


Katamari Damacy, game designer, Keita Takahashi, has been commissioned to create an avant-garde playground in Nottingham.

He has designed it for people of all ages, including dogs. I loved Katamari Damacy's style and bonkers music, and really like some of his designs here, but... If Nottingham Council truly want the best playground ever, then why no designs for wheelchair users too? 

Via: www.twitter.com/jonbeilin